It has been a summer of great sporting events: England getting to the final of the Euros and, of course, the Olympics. I’ve been inspired by the story of Kimia Alizadeh who fled her home country of Iran, saying she felt she was just one of the "millions of oppressed women.” She went on to beat Britain’s two time Olympic Champion Jade Jones in Taekwondo. Kimia became the first athlete from the International Olympic Committee's refugee team to win a medal.
She said "It was really hard, you change your country, you change your language. Everything changes, and it's a lot of pressure on your mind. But I think taekwondo helped me in that hard year. When I am training I don't think about anything.” Kimia’s achievement is all the more poignant given the extra struggles she has had face.
2000 years ago the apostle Paul liked to draw the analogy between how athletes underwent rigorous training to win the Olympics and how this might be an example for our own spiritual journey.
“Do you not know that in a race all the runners run but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training.”
Again he writes explaining how important it is to have a goal
“I press on towards the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenwards in Christ Jesus.”
In many ways we are encouraged to have goals. Those who’ve just received their exam results, GCSE’s, A levels, degrees, that new job or promotion, sales targets, fitness, lifestyle, diets and so on, know this well. Yet how often do we think of having goals for our spiritual journey? One pastor once said to me “if you aim at nothing you’ll hit nothing!” Should we not then also pay attention to the condition of the soul? What would it mean though to have goals in this sphere of life and how would we measure success?
The prize Paul refers to is nothing less than God himself. Paul is encouraging us to live in such a way as to be fully devoted, fully enjoying a relationship with God without barriers, shame or guilt. This assumes that we have already been made righteous because righteousness comes as gift of faith when we put our faith in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. This is good news because God does what we cannot do for ourselves but nevertheless, Paul stresses that our pursuit of God will still be an act of the will (to press on) even after we’ve received the free gift of salvation through Jesus. So what does “pressing on” look like in practice?
Just as an athlete will set smaller goals in order to achieve their ambition we too can set aside some simple practices: Being still, casting our worries on God (prayer), reading scripture, just a few moments a day can make all the difference. When we slow down just long enough we realise, God has been there all along. Its striking to think that he seeks us and shows his delight in us as we create some space for him. Resting in his presence, his character begins to rub off on us: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control – I know if I could simply grow in just one of these “fruits of the Spirit” something beautiful might be achieved. Time to set some goals!